Silent in the Background

Do you pray? Have you thought about the way you pray, and how you address God when you pray? Have you listened to the ways other people pray? One Bible passage that I’ve been reflecting on during my recent sabbatical prompts these questions: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. ( Galatians 4:4-7 ) This is one of Paul’s summaries of the gospel – the good news – of what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection achieved. There is a lot packed into this short passage, but we can note Paul’s emphasis that (because of our adoption as children , and as siblings of Jesus) we relate to God as our Father . One way that we experience and demonstr...

For the past couple of months at Catford Community Church we've been thinking through prayer, in various different forms, based on Pete Grieg's How to Pray - P ause, R ejoice, A sk, Y ield. In the middle of exploring 'Asking-Prayer' I was interested to come across a new little book focussed on how we can revitalise our asking prayers by looking at the pattern of prayer in the Bible and in the church.  In To You All Hearts Are Open Scot McKnight identifies a particular pattern of prayer in prayers recorded in the Bible, which is reflected in the prayers of many churches known as 'Collects'. McKnight sees five elements that commonly appear in biblical prayers that ask something of God, so that the person praying: Addresses God - often in the Old Testament this was simply addressing God as 'Lord' or 'Lord Almighty'.  Jesus and the New Testament writers encourage ...